Digital image processing has been in use for many years for applications ranging from satellite imagery to machine vision. A variety of digital image processing techniques, such as compression, warping, mathematical morphology, and other image combining operations have been implemented in the digital domain. These implementations, however, are often accomplished through the use of complex special purpose high speed digital hardware and/or machine specific software that operates, and must be programmed, at a primitive level.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to create a digital image processing system which utilizes a general purpose desktop computer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a video digital image processing system including an interface which allows the user to employ complex image processing techniques to create and modify video movies in a conventional desktop user environment.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a digital video processing system which automatically records the processing operations selected to perform a particular video edit, so that variations in the editing process can be accomplished by recalling the original editing operations and reprocessing only those portions of the editing operations necessary to achieve a different desired result.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a digital video processing system which automatically records the processing operation selected to perform a particular video edit, so that a movie can be edited in draft quality and, when completed, completely reprocessed (on the system of the present invention or on a remote system) using higher resolution data.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a video digital image processing system including an interface which allows for simple yet complete rotation, perspective and zooming of a selected clip.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a video digital image processing system including an interface which allows for quick modification of a selected video clip to warp an image.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an interface which allows the user to create his/her own library of effects which may be recalled on command to operate on a selected clip.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a video digital image processing system including an interface which allows the user to view abstract sample images which display the results of a particular operation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a video digital image processing system which is integrated with conventional word processing programs so that scripts corresponding to existing or desired scenes in a movie can be linked with corresponding digital video image clips.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a digital video image processing system including a display which organizes and exhibits each video clip in a two-dimensional array, providing a Storyboard View of the clips being incorporated into a movie.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a digital video image processing system having an interface having a display including one or more selected clips from a plurality of clips being edited in a frame-by-frame display.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital video image processing system having an interface including a display which provides a view of a portion or all of the video movie being edited therein.
It should be noted that the words "desktop" or "personal" computer as used herein are intended to refer to any of the currently available general purpose single-user computers which may operate independently or network and may incorporate suitable software to perform word processing, graphics, database, and spreadsheet functions.
The words "video" or "movie" as used herein are intended to refer to any electronic display of digital data sequences as images (and, optionally, sound). As used herein, a video or movie may include one or more "clips" each of which are subsets of the movie. Each clip is itself a movie comprising a sequence of one or more frames of images (and, optionally, sound).